Part 5

“There’s a divinity that shapes our ends.” Fortune turned in time. Shakespeare found work at the theatre, seems to have been liberally treated, though at first servitor or apprentice, and soon had a house in Bishopsgate Street, on which he was assessed higher than either of the Burbages. So it may reasonably be inferred he had his family by him at least by 1594, for a time. He never forgot Asbies. So when he did prosper he applied for arms for his father, bought the best house in Stratford for his wife and got his father and mother to have another fight for Asbies, this time in a court in which he thought he had a better chance of success. The Complaint on 24th November 1597 of John Shackespeare and Mary his wife and Answer have been printed among Special Proceedings in Chancery, Halliwell-Phillipps has them, and also the Decrees and Orders, but the details have not been worked out. Again John Shakespeare committed an indiscretion. Either his attorney mistook, or John, thinking that William was putting himself in power too much, had put forward a second complaint in _his own name only_. Of course, Lambert complained of this, and was supported. John had to withdraw one of his complaints and pay the expenses of both parties in it, and Lambert had permission to change his commissioners if he pleased. In Decrees and Orders, 18th May 1598, John Lambert’s Counsel said that John had exhibited a bill in the name of himself and his wife, and then a bill in his own name, had taken out his commission but examined no witnesses (D. and O. A. 1598, Trin. 706). On 27th June they had powers given to elect a commission to examine witnesses by the octaves of Michaelmas, directed to Richard Lane, John Combes, William Berry and John Warner. On 6th July 1598 (B. Book, 133), a new commission was appointed, and John Lambert changed his commissioners, probably finding those chosen first too much in favour of the Shakespeares. The new commission reads, Richard Lane, John Combes, Thomas Underhill, and Francis Woodward. The interesting part in such cases is the examination of witnesses. But the depositions have not been preserved; (I have sought for them very carefully both in Stratford and P.R.O.). That they had been taken, and had been in favour of the Shakespeares may be inferred by the entry,

“John Shakespeere and Mary his wife:--Yf the defendant shew no cause for stay of publication by this day sennight then publication is granted” (23rd October, Mich. 41 & 42 Eliz. D. and O. B. 1599).

This is the last word concerning the case, and we are left to surmise the sequel. Whether John Lambert, finding himself about to be beaten, put as a bar the Coram Rege case, and the Shakespeares’ offer to accept £20 in lieu of the property, and acknowledged his willingness to pay it _now_; or whether the waning fortunes of the Essex party withdrew what court influence might have come through the poet, we know not. But we know that there was never more a “Shakespeare of Asbies”; and that even on the death of his father in 1601 (curiously enough at the very time of the end of the twenty-one years lease he had drawn up from 1580), William instituted no further proceedings in his own name, and contented himself by purchasing other lands and leases of tithes.

One point I should have noticed is, that the final concord which Edward Lambert had drawn up in 1578, and had enrolled in 1579, was endorsed with the records of _fifteen proclamations_. The first could only have been at the Easter Assizes 1581, at Warwick, after the forfeiture of Michaelmas 1580; it was repeated every year, until the Shakespeares began to take proceedings in Chancery. It was stayed while the case was running, and never resumed, for John Lambert remained in possession at the now-vanished Asbies.

_“Athenæum,” 14th and 21st March, 1914._

FOOTNOTES:

[7] See the paper reprinted above, p. 17.

[8] The illustrations in my “Shakespeare’s Family,” including one of this cottage, were put in by Mr. Elliot Stock, without my knowledge, and against my will.

[9] See the Book of John Fisher of Warwick. “Every man is only careful for himself ... given to easy trades of life, providing for themselves, not having consideration for their posterity, which should not so be.”

[10] John Lambert had licence granted him till the Octaves of Michaelmas 1589 (Coram Rege Roll, 1311, f. 516, Mich. Term 31-32 Eliz. Westminster).

IV

MARY ARDEN’S ARMS

There has been much discussion concerning Shakespeare’s descent from the Ardens of Park Hall, and, through them, from the heroes of national legend. In some of the objections brought forward against his assumed pedigree, prejudice has been treated as proof, and opinion as reasoning. The critical strictures are best summed up in Nicholls’s “Herald and Genealogist,” 1863, vol. i, p. 510, and in “Notes and Queries,” 3rd Series, vol. v, p. 493: (1) That the relationship is imaginary and impossible, and those who assert it in error. (2) That the Ardens were connected with nobility, while Robert Arden was styled “husbandman.” (3) That the heralds knew the claim was unfounded when they scratched out the arms of Arden of Park Hall, and inserted the arms of Arden of Alvanley, in Cheshire. Though this was equally unjustifiable, the family being further off, there was less likelihood of complaint.

French, in his “Shakespeareana Genealogica,” p. 431 _et seq._, opposes these statements by others; and the interesting reproduction of the drafts and patents of Shakespeare’s arms, with the accompanying letterpress by Mr. Stephen Tucker, Somerset Herald, puts a student in a position to estimate them at their true worth. (See “Miscell. Geneal. et Herald.,” 1886, Ser. II, vol. i, p. 109.) I would now bring forward some arguments which may act as cumulative evidence to determine wavering opinion on the question.

Dugdale’s table shows that Walter Arden married Eleanor, daughter of John Hampden, of Hampden, in co. Bucks, and had, besides his eldest son and heir Sir John, esquire of the body to Henry VII, five sons, Martin, Thomas, Robert, Henry, William; Martin being placed as the second son, and Thomas as the third. But Thomas is given as second son and Martin as third, in Harl. MS. 1167, from which the visitation is published. (Compare Harl. 853, ff. 113-114; 1110, f. 24b; 1563, f. 5, f. 39; Harl. 2011, ff. 64b, 65, f. 75.)

The will of Walter Arden in 1502 (31 July, 17 Hen. VII) at Doctors’ Commons proves that at that date he had a son Thomas, named second in order. “Thomas Arden and John Charnells,[11] Squires,” attest the document. (See French, p. 452.)

I will that my sonne Thomas have dureing his lief x marcs whiche I have given to him. And that my sonne Martin have the Maner of Natfield dureing his lief according as I thereof made hym astate yf it canne be recorded, And yf not, thenne I will that the same Martyn and every of my other sonnes, Robᵗ, Henry, and William, have eche of them v marcs by yere duryng eche of ther lifes. And that my feoffees of my landes make eche of them a sufficient astate of landes and tenements to the yearely value of v marcs duryng eche of their lifes.

This is an income too small for a younger brother to live on, even in those days, and we must imagine that the father had either placed them, married them well, or endowed them in some way during his life. He could not be expected to do much. His father Robert had spent his substance in the Wars of the Roses, and was brought to the block in 30 Hen. VI (1452). Park Hall would be forfeited to the Crown and its acres impoverished. When Walter Arden was restored by Edward IV he would probably be encumbered by debt, and his large family (for there were daughters also) further limited his powers. This may help to account for the smallness of the legacies. Thomas, being the second son, might have had something from his mother or her kin. This same Thomas was alive in 1526, for Sir John Arden then wills that his brothers “Thomas, Martin, and Robert should have their fees during their lives.” We may, therefore, suppose that Henry and William had meanwhile died. It is probable that William had gone to reside at Hawnes, in Bedfordshire, as one bearing his name and arms appeared in that place about his time.

Seeing that Sir John was esquire of the body to Henry VII, it is very likely that his younger brother Robert was the Robert Arden, yeoman of the chamber (indeed Leland says he was so), to whom Henry VII granted three patents; the first on 22nd February 17 Henry VII: “In consideration of good and true services of our beloved servant Robert Arden, a yeoman of our chamber, we appoint him Keeper of our Royal Park at Aldercar,” _i.e._, Altcar, co. Lanc., 17 Henry VII (second part, pat. m. 30). In the same series, m. 35, 9th September 17 Henry VII, he was granted the office of Bailiff of Codmore, co. Derby, and Keeper of the Royal Park there. The third is 24th September 23 Henry VII (first part, pat. m. 12), a grant of Yoxall, for life, or a lease of twenty-one years if it descended to heirs, all royal rights reserved, at a rental of £42 a year. (See Boswell-Malone’s “Shakespeare,” Appendix, vol. ii, 544, 545.)

It is not recorded that Martin received Natfield, and it would not seem that he did so, as he lived at Euston, co. Oxford (Harl. Visit.). He married Margery, daughter and coheir of Henry East, of the Hayes, in co. Worcester; and his daughter and heir Eleanor (elsewhere Elizabeth) married first William Rugeley, of Shenston, co. Stafford, and then Thomas Gibbons, of Ditchley, co. Oxford (Visit. Ox. Harl. Public.).

Where meanwhile was Thomas Arden? Dugdale does not mention him again. There is no record of any Thomas Arden, either in Warwickshire or elsewhere, save the Thomas who is found, the year before Walter Arden’s death, living at Wilmcote, in the parish of Aston Cantlowe, on soil formerly owned by the Beauchamps. On 16th May, 16 Henry VII, a deed was drawn up at Snitterfield, commencing:

Sciant presentes et futuri quod ego Johannes Mayowe de Snytterfeld dedi, concessi et hac presenti carta mea confirmavi Roberto Throkmerton Armigero, Thome Trussell de Billesley, Rogero Reynolds de Henley-in-Arden, Willelmo Wodde de Wodhouse, Thome Ardern de Wylmecote et Roberto Ardern filio ejusdem Thomæ Ardern, unum mesuagium cum suis pertinenciis in Snytterfield. (See Halliwell-Phillipps’s “Outlines,” vol. ii, p. 207.)

The deed is in the miscellaneous documents of Stratford-on-Avon (see Halliwell-Phillipps’s “Calendar of the Stratford Records,” p. 291, vol. ii, No. 83).

This list of trustees is worth noting. Thomas Trussel is identified by his residence being given. He became Sheriff for the county in 23 Henry VII, and was of an old and well-known family (see Harl. Visit. and Dugdale). No Robert Throckmorton in the county could have precedence of him, save Robert Throckmorton of Coughton, who six months later, in November of the same year, was knighted, “a noble and pious man,” says Dugdale. He made his will in 1518, before he set out for the Holy Land. This was proved in 1520. His son George succeeded him at Coughton. Edward Arden, of Park Hall, was brought up in his care, and married Mary, his son Robert’s daughter.

That a man of the same name, living at the same time, in the same county, retaining the same family friends, under circumstances suitable in every way to the second son of Walter Arden’s will, should be accepted as that son, seems perfectly natural and just, when _no other claimant has ever been brought forward_. But we _know_ that this Thomas and this Robert were Mary Arden’s grandfather and father; we _know_ that this property was that afterwards left in trust by this Robert Arden for his daughters; we _know_ that the Shakespeares claimed the relationship, and that the heralds allowed it. Men should be judged truthful until proved guilty of falsehood, and no proof has ever been laid down against their statement. I bring forward only as a faint sidelight[12] the fact that of Robert Arden’s seven daughters at Wilmcote, the four younger, Margaret, Joyce, Alice, Mary, bore Arden names. The first and third, Agnes and Katharine, had Throckmorton names; and Joane was the name of Thomas Trussel’s unknown wife.

Mr. Nicholls’s second objection to this unbelieved-in Thomas, that he could not be a son of the Ardens because he is styled “husbandman,” is of little weight. The word is an old English equivalent for “farmer,” and might be applied to any gentleman resident on his lands. In this sense it is often used in old wills; it is so used in Stratford-on-Avon records, and in the examination of John Somerville, who stated that he had received no visitors but “certain husbandmen, near neighbours” (S.P.D.S. Eliz., 1583). “The kingdom of heaven is like unto a husbondman that went out first bi the morowe to hire werkmen into his vineyard” (Matt. xx, 1, Wycliffe). Even Dryden, in “Threnodia Augustalis,” says “The Royal Husbandman appeared”; and Mr. French notes other uses of the word: “The Arden Husbandman of Wilmecote in 1523 and 1546 paid the same amount to the subsidy as the Arden Esquire of Yoxall, 1590” (French, “Shaks. Gen.,” p. 423). It is more than probable that this Thomas married an unambitious wife. There is even yet a chance of finding her name through some will or deed.

Mr. Nicholls’s third assertion, that the heralds scratched out the arms of Arden of Park Hall because they dare not quarter them with those of the Shakespeares, requires to be more fully dealt with.

Drummond, in his “Noble British Families,” exemplifies many varieties of the arms of Arden, and traces them back to their derivation. He notes that “none of the branches or sons of the Earls of Warwick bore their arms, but only the eldest son, who was earl”; and that “the elder branch of the Ardens took the arms of the old Earls of Warwick, the younger branches took the arms of Beauchamp with a difference.” Now it is quite true that the Ardens of Park Hall bore Ermine, a fesse chequy or and az., arms derived from the Earls of Warwick, and that this was the pattern scratched out in Shakespeare’s quartering. But no critic seems to have noted the reason. Mary Arden was heiress not in the eldest line, but _through a second son_. The true pattern for a second son was three cross crosslets fitchée, and a chief or. As such they were borne by the Ardens of Alvanley, with a crescent for a difference. They were borne without the crescent by Simon Arden[13] of Longcroft, the second son of Thomas, son of Sir John, and full cousin of Mary Arden’s father. It is true that among the tombs at Yoxall the fesse chequy appears; but that branch gained a right to this coat after the extinction of the elder line in 1643.

Glover’s “Ordinary of Arms” mentions among the “marks of cadency” a martlet. Martin Arden, of Euston, co. Oxford, was clearly in the wrong to assume as he did the arms of his elder brother. William Arden, of Hawnes, in co. Bedford, correctly bore the three cross crosslets and the martlet. The three cross crosslets fitchée were the correct arms, and the martlet the correct difference, for Thomas Arden, as the second son of an Arden who might bear Ermine, a fesse chequy or and az. Thus Glover enumerates (vol. ii, ed. 1780) among the arms of Warwickshire and Bedfordshire: “Arden or Arderne. Gu., three cross crosslets fitchée or; on a chief of the second, a martlet of the first. Crest, a plume of feathers charged with a martlet or.” It is strange that Mr. Nicholls omitted to consider this. Camden and the other heralds of the sixteenth century were only seeking correctness in the restitution of arms, which were impaled in John Shakespeare’s case on the right, as of the older and nobler origin.

A similar contention arose about Edmund Neville, Edward Arden’s nephew (S.P.D.S. Eliz. 185, 72):

Pedigree of Neville and statement that he may bear Latimer’s arms. Richard Lord Latimer’s eldest son was John, Lord Latimer; his second son, William Neville of Latimer. John’s son John, Lord Latimer, died without male issue, leaving four daughters, his heirs, who divided his lands, and may quarter his arms. William Neville’s son was Richard Neville, who married Barbara, sister of Edward Arden of Park Hall, and their son is Edmund. By the custom and usage of England, after the decease of John, Lord Latimer, without issue male, Richard Neville, his cousin german, may bear the arms of the family, _without distinction or difference_.

If heraldry, therefore, has anything to say to this dispute, it is to support the claim of Thomas to being a cadet of the family of the Park Hall Ardens.

Nothing is recorded to account for Shakespeare allowing the arms of his mother, impaled on his father’s shield, to lapse from his own. It may be that, on his father’s death in 1601, he thought of the old meaning of quartering, “that it may be known whom a man hath married”; it may be that, tender of his Anne’s feelings, who had no arms to quarter, he let his spear shine alone on his shield; or it may be that, having proved his pedigree, he felt that

Honours best thrive When rather from our acts we them derive Than our fore-goers.

--“All’s Well,” Act II, sc. iii.

_“Athenæum,” 10th August 1895._

FOOTNOTES:

[11] John Charnells of Snarston had married his daughter Joyce.

[12] A strong proof of the connection lies in the fact that this Sir Robert Throckmorton was intimately connected with the Ardens of Park Hall, and that Sir John Arden a few months later made him also trustee of property for his younger children. (See my “Shakespeare’s Family,” p. 184.)

[13] See Fuller’s “Worthies.” He was Sheriff of Warwickshire, 12 Eliz.

V

STRATFORD’S “BOOKLESS NEIGHBOURHOOD”

In writing his “Outlines of the Life of Shakespeare,” Halliwell-Phillipps determined not to give the reins to his imagination, and to accept nothing that he did not think he could _prove_. At times, however, his treatment of probabilities seems to suggest that he had made up his mind that Shakespeare had grown up under conditions which make it hard to understand the possibility of the development of the _poet_ in the _man_. Many of his statements have been pressed into the service of the peculiar people who deny Shakespeare to be a poet at all. One of these, given as a fact, is that Stratford was a “bookless neighbourhood.” It is always rash to use universal propositions when they are not built up from a thorough examination of all possible particulars, as it leaves them liable to be proved untrue by a very limited opposite. Very little would serve to prove Halliwell-Phillipps to be mistaken in his statement, and, with him, all the crowd of copyists who follow him in everything they please to select from his work and opinion. This may be done both generally and specially.

I. Generally.--We know that Becon, in dedicating “The Jewel of Joy” to the Princess Elizabeth in 1549, speaks of Warwickshire as the most intellectual of English counties. We know that Stratford, as a town, was intelligent enough to pay its schoolmaster far above the average. Indeed, the master of Stratford Grammar School received a salary _double_ that of the master of Eton. It is therefore more than probable that Stratford had the best masters going at the time. And good masters imply good books. From several sources we know the curriculum of the grammar schools of the day, and the classical books that were used. A master who could teach from such books would be sure to have, like Chaucer’s clerk,

Standing at his bed’s head, Twenty books y-clad in black or red.

The vicar of Stratford Church and the curate of the chapel would most likely have a selection of volumes in their possession; the attorneys would have their law books, the doctors their medical books. We _know_ from his will as well as from John Hall’s “cures” that Shakespeare’s son-in-law had a notable library, which people from a distance, even, came to see. Richard Field, the Stratford printer in London, had a very large and important list of publications, some of which were sure to have found their way down to his native town. Many Warwickshire men were London printers. There is every reason to believe that the first Sir Thomas Lucy had a library at Charlecote, which had become enriched in his son’s time, and is remembered in his will and on his tombstone. Sir Henry Rainsford, in the neighbourhood, the friend and patron of Drayton the poet, was little likely to be unprovided. Sir Fulke Greville, the Recorder of Stratford, was a reading man, and not only was a possessor, but also a creator, of books. Clement Throgmorton of Haseley, was a learned man; and his notable son Job was entangled in the Martin Marprelate controversy. Every recusant’s arrest and trial were based on his possessing “books” of a kind other than the Government approved. One can in this way almost indefinitely widen the sphere of the _general_ existence of books. But generalities have not the convincing power of specialities, and as I have found, without much searching, the _names_ of some of the books in Stratford and its immediate neighbourhood, there may yet be found many more existing to prove the rashness of Halliwell-Phillipps’s assumption.

II.--Specially.--Among the legal cases brought before the Town Council were some referring to special books. For instance, in 1604 “Valentine Palmer was attached to answer Philip Rogers, for unlawfully detaining a certain book called ‘Gailes Kyrirgery,’ valued at ten shillings and twopence.” This refers to “Certain Workes of Chirurgery,” by Gale, published in 1563, and reprinted in 1586 (see Miscellaneous Documents of Stratford-on-Avon, 2 James I, No. 23). No. 149 of the same series gives “the answer of Philip Rogers to Valentine Palmer about ‘Gailes Kyrirgery.’” The one book in itself is important enough to overthrow the sweeping assertion.

But in support of the natural opinion that the clergy would have books, we have at least one will, one inventory, and one list of prices of the books of a curate in the very parish of Stratford--that of Bishopton. There may have been more books, worn and valueless, but we are told the names of those in good enough condition to have some marketable price. The Rev. John Marshall, curate of Bishopton, died, not young, in the fourth year of James I (1607). He left by will to his kinsman Francis Jeccoxe “Babington upon Genesis”; to Richard his son “Martin Luther upon 1st and 2nd epistle of St. Peter”; to John Jeccoxe, “my godsonne, my boke called ‘The Image of God.’”

In the Inquisition of his goods taken 10th January 1606-7, by Abraham Sturley, Ralfe Lorde, Francis Ainge, William Ainge, and Thomas Cale, we find that some of these, or all of them, knew enough about books to affix a contemporary saleable value, which, though it seems small to us, must be reckoned according to the money rates of the time. As their inventory has not been printed, and as it gives a fair illustration of the class of libraries owned by the minor clergy, it seems worth giving _in extenso_. It will be seen that it contains various irregularities and contractions:

Bookes.